Sunday, May 15, 2011

How to Become a Computer Wizard

We all have them. Heck, I'm one of them. The computer genius. The power user. The geek. The nerd. The one you call when something goes wrong. The one that will sit down, and in the time it takes to go to the fridge and get a root beer, fixes the problem thats plagued you for weeks.

And here's how to be just like them.

There are very few requirements to learn how to be a computing wizard. They are:

A working computer

A mouse

A keyboard

A working internet connection

A fifth grade reading level

If you've got that, you can learn too.

I've learned almost everything I know about computers from either trial and error, Google, or the gawker network.

Really.

No secret nerd cult, no innate level of awesome geekiness, and no inborn ability to know everything about computers. Just two hands, ten fingers, the ability to read and the ability to learn from my mistakes.

Explore

Explore your surroundings. Find yourself on a geek website? Go to the homepage. Look around. Follow links. Bored and have nothing to do in Windows? Play with options. Click buttons, and see what they do. See something interesting? Poke it with a stick. Change the options to see what happens.Exploration and trial and error will teach you more than you know.

Google is Your Friend.

The one thing I wish I could teach everyone. In 99.999999999999% of cases, a quick Google search will fix your problems. Or rather, tell you how to fix them. Google will take you places. Have a question or problem? Google it. Want to know how to do something? Google it. Don't know what a word or phrase means? Google it. If your curious, Google it. Google can tell you anything. Why does my computer have yellow lines on it? Why did my laptop shut down all of a sudden? How do I stop procrastinating? How do I ask a boy/girl out? How do I make friends? How do I make a good impression? How do I convince people to like me? How do I persuade people to help me? What not to do when taking over the world? Google can solve all your problems, because, chances are, someone else has had it too, and they probably asked about it. But don't always click the first link you see. Browse through them, till one catches your interest.Read

There are plenty of blogs out there that deal with computers. Find them. Places like Gizmodo, How-To Geek, Lifehacker, and a thousand others. Often times, they will link to other sites. Click those links. Look at the highlights. Learn.

Easy enough right? Go on. Google something. Tech blogs. How to do this. How to do that. Computer blogs. Google Chrome error 104. Ubuntu. Lifehacker. Minecraft. Rainmeter. Click links. See something interesting? Click it. There is no better teacher than experience, but the internet is pretty good at it too.